Frequently Asked Questions

1) Can our a simple church and continue to attend a conventional church?

It will hurt your Simple Church missionary work and complicate (not simplify) your life. But it is more important to understand why.

The Simple Church prioritizes relationships with secular or unchurched people. And these relationships take time—lots and lots of time.

Foundational to missionary work is that missionaries literally “go,” leaving their comfort zones to reach unreached people.

It used to be that missionaries would “go” overseas, learn a new language, eat new food, wear different clothes, and immerse themselves in a new culture. Everything around them constantly reminded them, “I am a missionary.” It was physically impossible for the missionary to keep one foot involved in a conventional church back home and put the other foot in the mission field. They had to choose between the two. This was a blessing in disguise.

For Simple Church missionaries, it can be tempting to try to stay involved with one’s existing church and “add” simple church missionary work. However, this complicates life and ignores the priority of becoming a front-line missionary and spending more time with unreached people.

This training intentionally takes you from training to trenches.

This is why Simple Church is intentional about simplifying the “religious rat race” so that you have more time (not less) to go, search for, and find people whose hearts are still open to God.

Simple Church planting is your mission trip.

4) I’m looking for a statement of faith or doctrinal beliefs.

Disciple-making is about discipling people one step at a time (as compared to stating, declaring, or telling people). And since we work with many people who have little Bible background. In PhaseONE training, we disciple them step-by-step, from the ground up, and lay a strong Biblical foundation, regardless of their background. In other words, we actually disciple people in their faith and belief process.

3) How much time does disciple-making involve?

1. 1. Daily self-feeder of God’s Word.
   2. Weekly gathering in a Simple House Church.
   3. Monthly Healthy Church Check-in meeting.
   4. 1 hour/week participating in an accountability group.
   5. 2 hours/week visiting people in their homes.

2) What is a Simple House Church?

Simple Church is a spiritual family where:

1. 1. 1. Everyone is trained.
      2. Everyone works in their harvest field.
      3. Everyone leads in various ways.
      4. Everyone coaches/mentors others.

Simple Church sends trained believers throughout the week who literally go search for and find people whose hearts are still open to God among those who are far from God. PhaseONE training teaches you how to 1) become a disciple of Jesus and 2) make disciples for Jesus.

Simple Church is a gathering of trained believers who are in the pursuit of God. PhaseTWO training covers this.

3) How many people make up a Simple church?

A simple Church begins with a minimum of 2 adult believers plus their children (often a family) and grows to a maximum of 12 adult believers plus their children.

4) What happens when our Simple Church is “full?”

Once your Simple Church has 12 adult believers, you continue to literally go out into your local community and search for and find people whose hearts are still open to God.

When you lead someone to Jesus (or encounter an already-believer) who wants to get involved, train them in Disciple-Making Movements.

5) What if I just moved here or do not know anybody locally?

In PhaseONE training you will learn how to talk with total strangers and quickly discover if their hearts are open to God.

6) What is a CORE Team?

A CORE Team is often composed of a husband/wife team (plus their children) who are convicted and committed to planting a reproducing house church.

A CORE Team can also be configured of 2 singles.

Note: Everyone on your team will be training and going out into the harvest, looking for people whose hearts are open to God.

7) What does the CORE Team do?

1. 1. Host the weekly house church gathering.
   2. Facilitate what happens during the weekly house church gathering.
   3. Complete the weekly online summary report (which is read by your coach).
   4. Train & coach their team to search for, find, and help others start new Simple Church gatherings.
   5. Facilitate mid-week (often on Sunday) Healthy Church Check-ins where the CORE Teams from other new house churches come together for continued support, training, problem-solving, and city-wide planning.